The 2014 Honda Odyssey Features HondaVAC in-car Vacuum System

At the New York International Auto Show Honda announced the new 2014 Honda Odyssey. Honda has long packed that latest technology in its family hauler, and this year’s new feature: the HondaVAC, the first ever integrated vacuum cleaner fitted in to an automobile.

Obviously, Honda targets the Odyssey towards families, where children often are on board and often make a mess. The HondaVAC is a great way to keep the vehicle clean. Heck, parents might even attempt to get their small children to clean up their own messes!

One may wonder: if the HondaVAC is the most interesting new feature of a vehicle, what about the rest? For 2014 not much has changed, but the Odyssey is already a class leader in areas like fuel economy and performance, so not much actually needs changed.

Before you write this off as a “whiskey tango foxtrot” moment, it is important to keep in mind that Honda has in the past done some quirky things to its vehicles. The Honda CRV, their small Compact Utility Vehicle (CUV), featured an integrated picnic table in the rear loading area. They did not entirely think it through, because they did not include folding chairs! They also did not advertise it well. Many CRV owners never realized they had a folding table in their vehicle. Honda has seemingly learned their lesson from this incident, and decided that the quirky HondaVAC was worthy of an auto show debut.

Honda has been known to innovate some fantastic products. Honda generators are the de-facto standard for portable power generation. The Honda S2000 was a world-renowned sports car with an engine that did things people said was not possible. The HondaJet is set to revolutionize small jet travel. Yes, the HondaVAC is not a technological masterpiece in that sense, but because of all the engineering experience Honda has it is quite likely that HondaVAC will work exceptionally well.